


Doctor Who and the Timeless Child

by DoctorpooandtheTURDIS



Series: The New Adventures of Doctor Who [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:01:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 17,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25537726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorpooandtheTURDIS/pseuds/DoctorpooandtheTURDIS
Summary: The sudden rise of a doomsday cult on Gallifrey brings with it catastrophe. The Lady President is out of commission, the Time Lords are descending into civil war, scrambling to find the so-called 'Timeless Child,' and responsible for it all, is one man.The Doctor.
Series: The New Adventures of Doctor Who [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1840504
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	1. Danger

**Author's Note:**

> I did write this chapter to apply both to the canonical Doctor, who we know is the ACTUAL Timeless Child, and the Susan in this fic who is my version of the child. You can read it either way, but if you don't want to read past the last two lines of this chapter, and just leave with the knowledge of how heartbreaking the implications of the Timeless Child are, that is still fine with me.

It could be said that Gallifrey was a planet of peace, stability, and safety. That the Time Lords, with all their infinite power and wisdom, could be counted on, trusted even, to build a world free of war, strife, and conflict, and you wouldn’t be wrong. The Time Lords haven’t made war, with each other or outsiders, for so long that the idea itself was alien to them. Indeed, Gallifrey is an idealist’s paradise. The people never want for anything, never kill thousands of their own kind over a simple disagreement of beliefs, nor any other reason to persecute based on differences.

The truth, obviously, is not so idealistic. As a general rule, the universe is not a safe place. People will always find reason to be cruel to one another. Some societies are simply better at disincentivizing it.

Gallifrey is no exception to that rule. The Time Lords, for all their posturing about being the most civilized civilization in the universe, are still just people. People with powers far beyond anyone else, but people, nonetheless.

It is thus, that the Time Lords too breed their own particular brand of cruelty. Not the cruelty of attacking someone for being better off, or having a different skin tone, or body type, or sexual preference. No, the cruelty Gallifrey produces is a far more… clinical one.

Because Gallifrey isn’t safe. Walk down the wrong street, enter the wrong building, make friends with the wrong people…

Quick non-sequitur, for a moment. You’re a child, doing kiddy things, playing around with your friends outside, not a care in the world. You get too close to a cliff, looking over, throwing rocks, and twigs, and things down below. No reason, it’s just fun.

And then the ground underneath you gives way, and you fall.

Everything hurts, and you should be dead, with how bad your injuries are… Yet no matter how badly you wish for the pain to end, you still just keep living. And then the pain gets worse…

And it feels like you’re on fire. Every fiber of your being burned away and replaced by something else. The pain fades, and you look up in a haze, seeing your mother standing above you.

She doesn’t recognize you.

And then she gets this curious look in her eyes… it’s cold, distant. Not a mother’s worried doting over her child, but a scientist with a new mystery to solve.

And then the pain begins again. Only it’s worse, because this is your own mother, your own caretaker who you only knew love for, inflicting it upon you. You burn away, and scream, again, and again, and again, all for the sake of your mystery being unraveled.

And suddenly, you will find yourself becoming a scientific experiment, suffering cruelties that would make any scientist with a moral compass wretch, all for the sake of advancing the species. You are no longer a person; you are a mystery to be solved.

This is what makes Gallifrey such a dangerous place. For if the Time Lords can inflict such pain upon those they consider to be their own offspring… Imagine what they’ll do to you.

And that story? No mere rhetorical device to make you think.

It happened, to one little girl, so very, very long ago.

This is the story of the Timeless Child…

Or rather, the story of Susan Foreman. And this is how it ends.


	2. The Distress Signal

The Time Rotor in the console room rose and fell, as the TARDIS drifted, tumbling through the infinite branching corridors of the Time Vortex with no destination in mind, the inhabitants of the vessel gathered in the console room, merely conversing among themselves.

Contrary to popular belief, the Doctor’s life wasn’t always one adventure to the next, with no time in between. He, like any other being with a capped-off capacity for stamina, had to stop and rest every once in a while, which meant the occasional off day.

Not that the Doctor liked it. There was a reason why he hated Tuesdays so much. Not that the off days strictly were Tuesdays by any measure of the calendar, but in a time machine, it could be any day he damn well pleased, so he made the boring ones Tuesdays, and everything else where all the exciting things happened were Saturdays.

Which, in a very fortunate coincidence, happened to be the subject of conversation for the TARDIS inhabitants. The Doctor, and his off days.

“Now, that’s not strictly true!” The Doctor objected, pointing vehemently at River, who was leaning back against one of the railings.

“Yes, it is!” River shot back. “Name one of our _attempted_ holidays that didn’t end in a great big disaster!”

“There was that trip to LA!”

“We wound up having to stop the city from being flooded by sentient masses of seaweed!”

“The trip to Confectius.” The Doctor continued, slightly having the bluster taken out of him.

“Devoured by a swarm of space ants.” River crossed her arms.

“…The red-carpet premiere of John Wick 4?”

River affixed him with a scathing look. “We got accosted at that one because of Susan.”

“I got Keanu’s autograph, though.” Susan, reading _The Picture of Dorian Gray,_ commented from the upper level, sitting down in the recliner. “Though I do think _Bill and Ted_ ripped us off.”

“And I apologized for the confusion!” The Doctor replied, like that absolved him of the issue.

“All I’m saying is,” River shrugged, “Trouble follows you around like a bad habit.”

“Well, I’ll show you!” The Doctor replied, walking back over to the console. “Today will be a day of rest and relaxation. No troublemakers, no evil plots, just unwinding. Nothing bad.”

A red light began to flash on the TARDIS console.

“Doctor,” River pointed to the light.

The Doctor, glancing at the light, scowled and turned away from it. “Nope, not doing it!” He huffed, crossing his arms.

Susan closed her book and removed her reading glasses, looking down at the older Time Lord.

“No!” The Doctor instantly replied. “Proving her,” He childishly pointed at River, “Wrong is more important than those lights!”

“Grandfather…” Susan warned.

The Doctor looked back and forth between Susan and River, before throwing up his hands, groaning in frustration. “Fine, but this doesn’t count!” He outlined, pulling around a monitor to face him.

The Doctor flicked a switch on the console, and in response, circular Gallifreyan text began to flash across the console, the Doctor’s eyebrows shooting up in surprise.

“What is it?” River inquired, noting the Doctor’s shock.

“It’s a distress call,” The Doctor answered, “From Gallifrey.”

“Gallifrey?” Susan repeated, coming down the stairs. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” The Doctor admitted, frowning. “The message is really vague. It doesn’t say much of anything… ‘Betrayal from within, enemies everywhere.’” He quoted.

“That’s it?” Susan crossed her arms. “Whoever wrote it must’ve been in a big hurry.”

“Yeah…” The Doctor agreed, blankly staring at the monitor. “Big hurry…” He inhaled, beginning to set the controls. “Well, we’re not going find out what’s going on by standing around talking about it.”

Throwing the throttle on the console forward, the TARDIS changed course through the Vortex, with one new destination in mind.

River sighed. “Well, there goes our off day.”

****

Deep within the halls of the Capitol of Gallifrey, the wheezing, scraping noise of TARDIS engines echoed throughout, as the Doctor’s TARDIS materialized square in the middle of the Panopticon.

One of the doors swung open, and the Doctor peeked his head out, looking around the area worriedly. Looking back in the TARDIS, he gestured for River and Susan to follow, and he stepped out, examining the area.

“This place has seen better days.” River remarked, looking around.

Indeed, it had. Rubble and scorch marks were obvious clues that a battle had taken place inside the chamber. The smell of smoke lingered in the air, as the once-steady lights flickered overhead.

“What _happened?”_ Susan wondered, slightly worried.

The Doctor swallowed. “I dunno. But I don’t like it.”

“The place looks like a warzone…” River commented, looking down at a piece of rubble.

“Yeah.” The Doctor agreed. “Maybe-“

A sudden explosion, and one of the walls crumbling cut the Doctor off, as one of the entry doors were kicked open.

The Doctor ducked, pulling Susan and River down behind a fallen chunk of the metal wall as a flurry of staser blasts went soaring through the air, bouncing off the walls and TARDIS as two opposing squadrons of Time Lords charged the room.

“You three!” One of the Time Lords in Chancellery Guard armor shouted, over the exchange of weapons fire. “Come with us!”

The Doctor looked to Susan and River. “Well?” He prompted.

Susan peeked her head out, yelping and ducking as a blast was sent her way from the opposing force. “Sounds good to me!”

The Doctor looked to River, the woman merely nodding.

“Right, run!” The Doctor ordered. “Run run!” He directed, pushing them ahead first. The Guardsmen at the entry door stepped aside to allow the three through, even as they continued firing upon the enemy.

Susan and River made it safely first, but the Doctor lagged behind, looking curiously at the enemy soldiers firing in their direction.

This was a mistake, as a blast struck the Doctor square in his chest, throwing him to the ground.

“Grandfather!” Susan called in fear, over the roaring of the ricocheting shots and explosions.

And the world around the Doctor slowly began to fade.


	3. The Cult of the Timeless Child

“…The damage is quite serious.” A feminine voice slowly faded into the Doctor’s mind, as consciousness returned to him. “He’ll recover, but it won’t be any time soon.”

“Ow…” The Doctor quietly groaned, laying down in an unfamiliar bed. He creaked his eyes open and glanced around. It took the Time Lord a moment, but it came back to him, and the Doctor took in an anxious breath, quickly sitting up.

“Hey, careful, careful!” A young Time Lady warned, sprinting over to the Doctor. “Take it easy. You’ve been out for quite some time.”

“Where…” The Doctor croaked, looking around. “Where am I?”

“You’re in my medical bay, in the Capitol.” The young woman explained. “My name is Rodan, I’ve been the one looking after you.”

The Doctor glanced up at her. “I knew a Rodan once. Well, she worked Planetary Control, but I digress… Why am I here?”

“You don’t remember?” Rodan frowned, looking down at the datapad she held. “You were shot by a staser, on the maximum setting, no less. I’m surprised there was anything left of you to recover at all.”

“Yeah, the bedside manner is great, thanks.” The Doctor grumbled.

“I’m just stating the facts.” Rodan tapped a series of commands into the datapad she held and turned it around to allow the Doctor to look at the screen. “Is this you?”

The Doctor nodded, a still image of his first face peering back at him.

“Good.” Rodan turned the pad back around frowning. “How old are you? This can’t seem to want to decide whether you’re twelve-hundred, four-thousand, or four and a half _billion_.”

“It’s rude to ask someone how old they are.” The Doctor bristled.

“Just answer the question.” Rodan pushed.

The Doctor grumbled, and whispered something into Rodan’s ear, the woman’s eyebrows shooting up. “Good _God._ Shouldn’t you be in some sort of geriatric’s facility by now?”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up.” The Doctor crossed his arms. “Now, if you’re done making fun of your elders, maybe you’d like to tell me _what’s going on_?”

“I believe I might be of some assistance, Doctor.” A different voice answered, entering the room.

“Commander Maxil,” The Doctor’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Hopefully you and your goon squad aren’t here to execute me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Maxil shot back. “A military man I may be, but I do not go around executing people on whims. How is he doing?” He asked of Rodan.

“The staser blast missed his hearts, thankfully.” Rodan explained, looking over the scan. “So far, it appears he is well on the mend.”

“Excellent.” Maxil stated, turning back to the Doctor. “Come with me,” He gestured to the door. “There is a great deal we must discuss.”

The Doctor nodded, pushing himself up.

“Hold on a minute!” Rodan chided. “He may be recovering, but he’s not fit to go walking around a warzone. Another blast like that, and it doesn’t matter where it hits, it will kill him! Not to mention the physical therapy he will need, and-“

“Then we shall offer him a walking stick.” Maxil cut her off, turning back to the Doctor. “Come on.”

The Doctor shot an apologetic/thankful glance to Rodan, as she provided him with a cane, and he followed Maxil out into the halls.

“We’re inside the Capitol, still…” The Doctor recognized with a frown, as he limped along, bracing himself on the cane. “That was the Capitol Clinic. Is she the only one you have staffing the hospital?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” Maxil soberly replied, as they walked down the corridors. “The Timeless Children do not leave injured to be attended to.”

The Doctor shot Maxil a perplexed look. “Timeless _what_?”

Maxil sighed in frustration, shaking his head. “How long has it been since you’ve last visited Gallifrey?”

“Since… that business with Shepard in the Death Zone.”

“I see.” Maxil clasped his hands behind his back. “I shall endeavor to give you the short version. Since your last visit, Gallifrey has descended into civil war.”

The Doctor froze, stopping in his tracks. “ _What_!?”

“Yes…” Maxil stated, continuing to move forward, the Doctor moving to keep up. “Shortly after Lady President Romana’s inauguration, a group calling themselves the Timeless Children began making splashes in the political scene.”

“Politics…” The Doctor grumbled lowly, shaking his head. “I hate politics.”

“We don’t know how long they’ve been operating,” Maxil continued, “Only that they seem to be more ‘doomsday cult’ than a political party. Mad ravings about the ‘wicked’ being purged in a great fire, and the like… At first, they were the source of ridicule for a long while, barely able to surpass more than a hundred members at any given moment.”

“I’m sensing a ‘but’ there.”

Maxil let out a partly frustrated, partly angered sigh. “Someone leaked the news of your visit to Gallifrey, as well as the identities of your companions.”

The Doctor inhaled. “Shepard and Susan… They know?”

“Indeed.” Maxil confirmed. “More importantly, the fact that Arkyitor was a real being led some groups to try and determine whether she really held connections to the ‘Timeless Child’ of myth.”

“Someone found the truth.” The Doctor deduced.

“Precisely.” Maxil nodded. “Shortly thereafter, another Time Lord broke into the Matrix, and released the accounts for all on Gallifrey to see.”

“Which led to this war.” The Doctor guessed, looking at the battle scarring.

“Not immediately.” Maxil granted. “At first, there was a tense peace, yes. But as time passed, the number of people arguing that reparations should be given to Arkyitor steadily grew… as did the violence of their campaigning. Lady Romana attempted to keep the peace as best she could, but…” He shook his head. “One of the shared rallies got out of hand, and she’s been incapacitated ever since. Without her… the squabbles and riots on both sides devolved into all-out civil war. Between those who wish to worship your granddaughter as a living god, and those of us who wish for things to simply go back to some semblance of peace.”

“Living god?” The Doctor repeated, as he and Maxil entered a transmat alcove. Maxil hit the controls on the wall, and suddenly, the two were transported clear across the Capitol, continuing forth. “Excuse me, but that sounds like a bit of a stretch to apply to the whole group.”

“Most of them are simply people who believe a genuine wrongdoing took place, yes.” Maxil conceded. “I will make concessions for that… But the leadership of them are devoted, almost fanatical.” Maxil looked at the Doctor with an expression of bafflement. “Doctor, these people believe that your granddaughter is some sort of… ‘chosen one!’ The divine ruler of Gallifrey who’s rightful position was usurped from her! If you don’t believe me… take a look at this.”

Maxil held out his hand, palm turned up, as a tiny hologram of a beardless Dumbledore-looking fellow, wearing white Time Lord robes, began speaking and gesticulating.

 _“My brothers and sisters, you have been lied to all your lives!”_ The speaker opened, pointing gravely in one direction to accentuate his point. _“The High Council would have you believe we are a noble people, guardians, protectors of the universe. It is all a lie! Our society is a deception, built on the suffering, the torment, of the most unique being the universe has ever produced! Eons ago, when we were so young as to not even be considered Time Lords, one of our kind found a very special child, at the bottom of a rift in time and space. This child bore a most unique gift, true eternal regeneration, and it was sent to us, not at random, but to lead us into the bold new future we were inventing for ourselves!”_

“He’s charismatic.” The Doctor commented, as the speaker paused. “I’ll give him that.”

 _“But instead, we locked it up.”_ The speaker continued. _“Experimented on it. Tortured it. Indeed, the reliable, safe rebirth that all of us can expect to save us when we are injured, was_ stolen, _taken from a child too young to even count! That is why, I send this message to you now. This child, the Timeless Child of ancient legend, has finally returned. Each of us lives on with a piece of her within our bodies, and as such, it is our duty, our_ obligation _, to make things right! Join me, and together, we will march on the Capitol, tear down the corrupt system that plagues us now, we will put Gallifrey’s rightful ruler in power, and those who have kept the truth buried, from all of us, shall burn in fire for their crimes!”_

“So… an army with a doomsday cult at its head.” The Doctor remarked, as the message finally stopped. “They may have been able to give you lot a run for their money, but they’ve made a mistake.”

“Oh, and that is?”

“They’re messing with _my_ granddaughter.”


	4. The Thing That Tecteun Did

Continuing down the halls of the Capitol, the Doctor and Maxil came to the Commander’s office, Maxil ushering the Doctor inside first.

The moment he stepped inside the office, the Doctor was practically tackled by someone.

“Grandfather!” Susan shouted with joy.

“Susan…” The Doctor coughed. “Can’t breathe.”

“Oh!” She quickly released him, sheepishly stepping back. “Sorry.” She frowned with worry, looking down at the cane. “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” The Doctor quickly replied. “I’ve had worse before, trust me.”

“Doctor,” River chided from where she stood, “Sit the hell down.” She commanded, practically shoving him into a chair.

The Doctor shook his head, even as he sat down, grumbling. “Give a man a cane, everyone starts treating him like he’s made of glass… Well, I’ll show you!” He quickly thwacked River in the shins, not hard enough to cause any serious pain or injury, but enough to be an annoyance.

“Ow!” River stepped back from the Doctor. “Crotchety old…”

“Right, well.” The Doctor stated with a smile, leaning his head on the tip of the cane. “Is there a reason you dragged me out of the hospital all the way here, hmm?”

“Yes, quite.” Maxil confirmed, moving to stand behind his own desk. “I couldn’t be certain if we were being spied on or not. It’s been… tough going, I’m afraid.”

“I can’t imagine.” The Doctor replied. “You’ve told me a bit about how this war got started, but not a lot about the actual situation.”

“I rather don’t like repeating myself,” Maxil bristled, “So I was waiting for all of you to be ready to listen. Are you? Or should I wait until it is more convenient for you?”

“Yeah, sure.” The Doctor shot back. “Let’s put some tea on, get some biscuits served up. You have cable in here?”

“Funny.” Maxil humorlessly replied but took it as permission to continue. “For the past four months, the Capitol has been under siege by enemy forces.” He began, as a hologram of the giant bubbled city was projected. “Our own defense forces have been holding the line, but every day, the enemy takes more and more of the city.” Maxil explained, as several of the green tinted sections of the hologram switched to red. “And now, they’ve managed to take control of and hold several key sections of the Capitol.” He finished.

“There are that many of them?” Susan looked at the hologram in surprise, as the red began to outnumber the green.

Maxil nodded. “It was not an even split. The Timeless Children have the vast majority of Gallifrey’s population supporting them, as well as the Shobogans and Outsiders.”

The Doctor frowned. “The Shobogans?”

River looked to the Doctor in confusion. “The what?”

“New age Time Lord drop-outs.” The Doctor explained. “The Outsiders are sort of like the Amish on Earth. They believe that a more primitive lifestyle can be a more fulfilling one and chose to drop out of the Academy to pursue it. The Shobogans are like a sub-group of that, except they’re more like hippies or bohemians.” The Doctor smiled fondly. “I was good friends with more than a few back in my day. Oh, the trouble we’d get in… There was this one time we threw a party for my birthday, and the next morning, we all woke up, and found out we’d stolen the moon.” The Doctor coiled in on himself sheepishly for a moment. “Not to be confused with the other time they said I stole the moon and the President’s wife.”

Maxil tilted his head in confusion, with an equal mix of exasperation and inquiry. “Is this going somewhere?”

“Yes!” The Doctor quickly replied. “My point is, war isn’t really the way the Outsiders and Shobogans do things. Harmless pranks, yes, maybe a couple of billion pounds worth of property damage sprinkled in, but killing? War? Most Shobogans don’t like it… it messes with their ‘good vibes.’ Why would they, of all people, get involved in this?”

“Come now, Doctor.” Maxil sarcastically began, “You and I both know they were merely a push away from becoming dangerous. All it took was the right one.”

“…Maybe they’re right.” River suggested after a moment’s pause. She looked between the Doctor and Maxil. “I mean, the Time Lords have done a lot of bad over the course of history, Tecteun’s experiments the least of it. Maybe it’s time you lot started making amends for some of them.”

“Amends?” Maxil incredulously repeated. “For something that happened millions of years ago? Perpetuated by those who I hold no link to? For something that I myself had no stake in? Why should I be made to pay for something that I do not benefit from, do not support, and that I did not do?”

“Your people did it.” River crossed her arms. “That makes you a part of it.”

Maxil huffed. “The arrogance! Then by that logic, humanity should be giving reparations to the mice because they experimented on them! The Salarians should give up all their worlds to the Krogan because of the Genophage! And the Mondasians-“

“Both of you, stop.” The Doctor ordered forcefully, without raising his voice. “I think we’re all missing the vote that matters most, here.” He looked over to his granddaughter, who was glancing back and forth between River and Maxil anxiously. “What about you, Susan? What do _you_ want?”

“I…” Susan stuttered. “I don’t-“

“It’s a horrible thing that was done to you.” River gently stated. “It’s okay to want payback for it.”

“But-“

“You must consider the greater whole, here.” Maxil advised. “You are not merely affecting yourself, but the lives of all who live on this planet will be forever altered by what you do.”

River and Maxil were beginning to talk over each other now, pressuring Susan, the lights were so bright, the humming of the fans in the room too loud. Her hearts were pounding so heavily it felt like she was being punched, and her breathing wrestled away control from her, as it all became too much for her to take in.

“Stop!” Susan shouted, covering her ears. “Stop, stop!” She demanded, covering her ears and scrunching her eyes shut tightly.

_“Mama!” She screamed, as her skin burned away again. Her hair shortened, as her entire body began to shrink down, becoming even younger than she had before. An eight-year old, trapped in a four-year-old’s body. “Hurts! Stop!”_

_“Fascinating…” Tecteun peered down at the child. She held a small, stick-like microphone to her lips, speaking into it. “Subject possesses ability to regenerate, despite physical immaturity. Furthermore, the inherent flaws with the process seem to be non-existent. Having induced regeneration in a controlled environment a total of nine times, the subject is now on her eleventh incarnation, but has not manifested any deformities or genetic errors, as is typical with our kind after so many regenerations. If the subject’s more refined version of regeneration can be applied to others… it could mitigate, or even completely eradicate, the issues commonly caused by our own regenerative abilities.” Tecteun paused for a moment. “Possibly even break the thirteen-regeneration limit. More regenerations will have to be induced to come to a conclusive analysis.”_

Slowly, the room around her calmed, and Susan opened her eyes back up, uncovering her ears. “I want Tecteun…” She growled, clenching her fist. “No one else has to get hurt… But Tecteun is going to _pay_.”

“Let’s,” The Doctor placed a steadying hand on Susan’s shoulder, jerking away when she furiously whipped around to face him. “Let’s focus on sorting this mess out first. Then we can focus on Tecteun.”

“Right…” Susan sighed, nodding slowly. “Right.”

“So,” The Doctor turned back to Maxil, leaning on his cane. “This war’s been going on for a few months now, time we end it.”

“End it!?” Maxil incredulously repeated. “Those… ruffians have attempted to assassinate the President, killed hundreds of Time Lords’ whose only crimes were being in the wrong place at the wrong time, destroyed countless lives all across the surface of the Gallifrey, and now you wish to make peace with them!?”

“Well, if you expected to get through this with the old regime still intact, you’d have to make peace anyway.” The Doctor retorted, accentuating his point by poking Maxil with his cane.

“Perhaps.” Maxil conceded. “But both sides must wish to have peace to make it a reality. They want no such thing.”

“Ah, but!” The Doctor corrected, holding a finger on his free hand in the air. “You have something you hadn’t before.”

“Which is?” River questioned.

“Me.” Susan finished, the Doctor grinning as he leaned on her shoulder.

“Exactly!” The Doctor beamed.

“You can’t be serious!” Maxil balked. “Those people treat that man like he’s their king!”

“Maybe, but what’s the old saying?” The Doctor’s eyes twinkled, glancing at Susan.

“’What’s a king to a god?’”


	5. Susan's War

Deep within the winding, eldritch halls of the Capitol of Gallifrey, beneath the ancient chambers of the High Council, sandwiched in the level separating the long-overgrown Cloisters from the rest of the Capitol, stood Stellar Control.

It was an unimportant part of the Capitol, a duty that no Time Lord, even the laziest, most unmotivated slackers, ever wished to be forced to undertake.

Because even for a race of the stuffiest, most pompous windbags ever to spring up on the face of the universe, _it was just that boring._ No vessel ever took off or came to Gallifrey, but now…

Now, it was but one of a dozen battlefields sprinkled throughout the Capitol.

Currently, this battlefield was the domain of five Time Lords serving what remained of the High Council, fighting to push back the encroaching Shobogans and Outsiders that counted themselves supporters of the Timeless Children.

“Keep firing!” Andred, the only Time Lord in that sector with anything even resembling Chancellery Guard training, ordered the men and women beside him, as he too stood behind a barricade, firing on the steadily approaching enemy. “Don’t let your stasers overheat, take a moment to duck between pauses to let it cool!”

“Will reinforcements get here in time?” Koras, a young woman with dark skin, brown eyes, and a sweet disposition, fearfully asked as she struggled to keep firing her weapon.

“The High Council will not abandon us.” Andred stated with resolve, as one of the Outsiders fell with a blast from Andred’s weapon. Andred himself ducked into cover, narrowly dodging a shot from the other side as he allowed his staser to cool. “We must hold out until they arrive.”

“Argh!” A woman to the left end of the barricade grunted in pain, as she collapsed.

“Ayala!” Another shouted, rushing to her aid.

“Keep pushing!” A voice from the other side commanded. “They will not stop us!”

“All of you, stop this nonsense right now!” A third party commanded, suddenly materializing onto the battlefield in a column of fire.

“Hold your fire!” One on the other side commanded. “Good god…” He breathed, staring at the figure. “It’s Her.”

The soldiers on the High Council’s side lowered their weapons in confusion.

The Shobogans and Outsiders began bowing their heads in respect. “My lady.” They chorused.

“Um…” Susan awkwardly waved at them. “Hello.”

Andred frowned, as he looked on the new arrival. “Who are you?”

“Quiet, pig!” One of the Shobogans snarled.

“No, no!” Susan wildly waved her arms, one hand clutching protectively onto a cane. “Stop, stop!” She looked between both sides. “I’m sorry about the fire, but I needed to get your attention somehow.” She explained. “The fighting has to stop.”

“Stop?” The Shobogan leader tilted his head. “Why would we stop? In the pursuit of justice, is it not better to keep pushing until you attain what you seek?”

“It is.” Susan replied. “But this isn’t justice!” She gestured to both sides. “It’s cruelty to beget cruelty.” She looked to the Shobogans with a pleading look. “You know that something supremely wrong has been inflicted on me, and I respect you for trying to make it right. But this isn’t the way to do it! In trying to get justice for me, you’re destroying countless other lives. Families are being ripped apart; innumerable hearts shattered. You want to think you’re so much better than the people you’re fighting against, but you’re committing atrocities just as bad! And the worst part is, you think it’s right… because those in charge of you are telling you it is.”

“Do you…” One of the Outlanders confusedly began. “Do you not wish for justice?”

“I do!” Susan insisted. “But this isn’t the way.” She glanced at the Chancellery Guardsmen, who were looking over their dead squadmate, before turning back to the others. “You see this?” She inquired, holding up the cane.

“A… weapon, of some sort?”

“No.” Susan quickly shot down. “It’s called a walking stick. We don’t normally keep these around, even here. Normally, if we suffer a leg injury that can’t be repaired, we just replace it with a new one, or regenerate, you know that, right?”

The Shobogans and Outsiders nodded.

“My grandfather will need this for the rest of his life, now.” She said, shaking it. “The shot that hit him, the shot from one of _your_ people… It damaged the nerves in his brain responsible for the movement of his left leg. _My_ grandfather, the only person who I’ve ever called family.” Susan punctuated by slamming the cane down. “If you people really care about seeing that I get justice… You’ll stop this now. Please.” She begged, staring the lead Shobogan dead in the eye. “I want the people responsible to pay… But I want it to be on _my_ terms, no one else’s. Not even yours.”

The leader of the squad looked down, slowly nodding. “I see…” He looked back up, a resolute gaze in his eyes. “Brothers, sisters, we have been lied to.” He began turning around to his followers. “We were told we were on the side of right; I see now that isn’t the case. We have done terrible things… And we should atone for them.” He quietly murmured, dropping his staser rifle. “The time has come for us to lay down our arms. This fight… is not our fight. We must leave it to Her.”

The Shobogans and Outsiders assaulting the Stellar Control facility looked to each other, muttering, before they too dropped their weapons.

“Thank you… Thank you so much.” Susan expressed, relieved and slightly tearful at the fact that she had made progress. “I didn’t know if I was going to be able to convince you or not.”

“We seek only to make things right.” The leader replied. “You should not blame us for believing the lies of the leadership, we have good intentions.”

“Hm.” Susan gave a tiny, knowing nod. “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. The problem with thinking you’re doing the right thing, no matter what side you’re on… you’ll cling to it no matter what. And keep doing it no matter how many lives are destroyed.”

“Oh?” The leader’s eyebrows raised. “Speaking from a position of knowledge, are you?”

Susan looked away, pausing for a moment. “My grandfather and I have seen the patterns repeated on more worlds than you can count. Wherever there is injustice… there are those determined to fight it. In the wrong and right ways.” She turned back to him. “But this is my fight, not yours.”

“Yes…” The leader nodded slowly. “Perhaps it is time for those who have no part of this to step away from it. Brothers, sisters, with me!” He commanded, turning to move down the corridor they had approached from.

“Before you go, tell your leader this.” Susan crossed her arms. “We’re going to end this, whether he likes it or not.”

The leader of the small squad nodded, “It will be done.” He vowed, as they proceeded down the corridor.

“You can’t just let them leave!” Andred stated in disbelief. “They’ve killed people!”

“And so have you.” Susan shot back, shooting a glance to the bodies piled in the corridor, before glaring at Andred. “So, I don’t think you’re in a position to call me out on my choices. When all this is over… All of you will get the karma that’s coming to you. But right now, the fighting is going to stop. I’m going to _make_ it stop.” She stated, tapping the cane on the ground twice. Embers started to gather in the air around Susan, as a pillar of fire came down from the ceiling, scooping her up, leaving nothing behind when it receded.

**_**DW**_ **

“Ha ha!” The Doctor beamed, disregarding the extreme pain in his leg as he limped up to Susan as she rematerialized. “You did great!” He praised, wrapping her in a hug. He smiled, as he took the cane back from her, bracing on it. “You got them both to step down, not a drop of blood spilt. I’m so proud of you.”

Susan returned it. “Thanks… being honest, I was terrified the whole time. I’m just glad all of them stopped long enough to listen to me.” She frowned, as she glanced back to the transmat alcove she’d just stepped out of. “Was the fire really necessary, though?”

“It’s a clever trick I learned from the 456. Horrible, reprehensible creatures, the lot of them, but they do know how to make quite the lightshow with transmats.” The Doctor replied, as he stepped away from the alcove with her. “The Shobogans needed to think you were a vengeful god, and the Chancellery Guards needed to snap out of fighting long enough to listen. Win-win.” He limped back over to the controls, before throwing the cane back to Susan.

“So, one group down, another one-hundred-thirteen to go.”


	6. Low Town Lowdown

_“…Research Log, entry number 324.” Tecteun began, speaking into the recorder. “After debating with myself on the subject for some time, I’ve finally decided to trigger another regeneration in the subject… And it paid off. The subject has safely and successfully regenerated into her fourteenth body, with no sign of physical degradation or deformity. With this discovery, the priority now becomes reverse engineering the subject’s more refined version of the process and applying it to ourselves.” Tecteun paused, looking over to the baby laying on the bed. “The subject’s physical age has reversed significantly, but it will not be an obstacle. I will immediately begin round two of tests.”_

Several hours later, after being transmitted to and from every corner of the Capitol more times than she could count, Susan finally rematerialized one last time in the transmat alcove.

“I’ve just received word,” Maxil began, standing over near his desk. “The fighting across the Capitol has mostly stopped. There are some holdouts, but nothing that can’t be dealt with easily enough.”

“We did it.” Susan smiled proudly, as she stepped out of the alcove.

“No.” The Doctor corrected as he took the cane back. “You did. Not a drop of blood spilt, I’m proud of you.”

Susan bashfully smiled. “Thanks.”

“Yes, well, if we’re all done patting each other on the back.” Maxil coughed. “We still have the _leadership_ of this group to deal with.”

“Yes, right.” The Doctor agreed. “Is my TARDIS still where I left her?”

“Indeed.” Maxil nodded in confirmation.

“Hold on,” River interjected, “Do we even know where these people are headquartered?”

Maxil let out a derisive snort. “Of course I do! I’m the leader of Gallifrey’s entire military, not a renegade that wouldn’t notice a Cyber-King if it stared him in the face.”

“Hmm?” The Doctor absent-mindedly looked up from where he was playing with his bow tie.

“Precisely my point.” Maxil shot a smug look at River. Maxil turned back to the Doctor. “Their base is located underneath the Capitol, somewhere. We would just firebomb the entire area, but the support beams holding this place up wouldn’t be able to handle it. Am I to understand you’re familiar with the area?”

“Um… yeah.” The Doctor sheepishly replied. “Come along, you two.” He waved for Susan and River to follow. “We’ve got a war to end!”

**_**DW**_ **

“…” Boffin, the leader of the Timeless Children, glowered from behind his desk. “How did this happen?” He quietly and angrily demanded.

“Our solders on the front were pushing ahead, quite aggressively, I might add.” The Magister reported, a Cuban cigar from Earth held in his fingers. “And then they all simply decided to stop. Those that returned to us all report the same thing. The Timeless Child descended down into the battlefield and demanded they stop.”

Boffin clenched his fist, barely restraining his fury. “I was under the impression that she and her… ‘grandfather’ were staying far away from Gallifrey. Sharing a retirement on Earth… So _why_ are they back!?” He roared, standing up, slamming his fists on the metal of his desk.

“Someone activated a distress signal.” The Rani answered, hands calmly clasped behind her back. “We don’t know who.”

“A distress signal was sent…” Boffin began. “And neither of you saw fit to inform me of this!?”

“The situation was well under control.” The Magister replied. “The only vessel the signal was intended to reach was a single TARDIS drifting in the Vortex.

“Morons!” Boffin snarled, “The both of you! Didn’t it occur to you that the only reason we are able to compel these people to fight for us is their misplaced belief in a child that lived millions of years ago! And because of your negligence, that child is back, telling them to stop fighting.”

“It was our impression you were going to lure her back here regardless.” The Rani commented.

“Yes… but _after_ we succeeded in overthrowing the High Council! Only now, our forces have completely stopped fighting, and the High Council’s military is on its way here!” Boffin let out a frustrated sigh. “We’ll have to step up the activation schedule,” He bit his lower lip, turning back to the two furiously. “Rally everyone in the central hall, we may be able to salvage this yet…”

**_**DW**_ **

“Right, here we are…” The Doctor said, as the TARDIS finally rematerialized. He looked over to Susan, who seemed to be nervous. “You okay?”

“Yes, I…” She swallowed. “I just want this all to end. I don’t want to be responsible for any more fighting.”

“Don’t worry.” River placed a comforting hand on Susan’s shoulder. “We’ll stop this.”

Susan nodded, but looked uncertain. The people she talked into stepping down weren’t the leadership… who knows how the next conversation will turn out? Nevertheless, as the Doctor began moving towards the door, she and River followed, stepping outside.

“I know this place…” Susan furrowed her eyebrows, as she looked around. “This is Low Town. You never would take me here.”

“Yes, well, the Shobogans here tend to be a bit more… unkind to the Time Lords than the rest of them.” The Doctor looked around warily at the shantytown they found themselves in. A homeless Shobogan stumbled by, the Doctor keeping a wary eye on him in case the man tried anything. “Makes sense the Timeless Children’s leader would set up shop here. Most of the population down here are Shobogans, if the Time Lords came looking around for him beforehand, they wouldn’t play ball, and once the war started, he was able to recruit already sympathetic souls straight from the streets.”

“Clever.” River commented.

“Devious.” The Doctor corrected. “All these young and old people, desperate to get out of this place… It’s the same thing that has allowed countless tyrants to rise on countless different worlds. The promise of a better life. Not that you shouldn’t wish to better yourself, mind you,” The Doctor quickly tacked on, “But you should do it yourself… not blindly follow someone in exchange for them giving it to you.”

“So how do we find him?” Susan questioned, looking around the darkened streets. In the distance, one of the massive support pillars that held up the gargantuan weight of the Capitol, extended high up into the dark. “I can’t imagine there’d just be a sign posted up that says, ‘Timeless Children Recruitment Center.’”

“You’d be right about that.” The Doctor replied. He looked into the dark distance, the faint lights of the town illuminating building miles away, like New York City, if the entire place was filled with buildings made of scrap metal and half-rotten wood. “Oh, look!” He pointed, to a distant building lit up with a gaudy neon sign. “There’s our ticket!”

“A tavern that looks like it crosses off every single health code violation in the book?” River asked, slightly repulsed at the appearance of the place.

The Doctor thwacked her gently on the arm. “Don’t do that! Quickest way to start a fight is to insult the local pub! And yes, it may sell low quality food and watered-down beer, but do you know what else is on the menu?”

Susan grinned. She’d watched plenty of spy-thrillers and crime dramas on board the TARDIS. “Information!”

“Precisely!” The Doctor snapped a finger in her direction. “Come along!” He guided, beginning to walk in the direction of the tavern.

River shook her head, grumbling as she followed. “Knowing our luck, he’s going to start a fight the moment we walk through those doors.”


	7. Glitz and Chitz

River looked around the bar with a slightly disgusted grimace, at the dirty tables, greasy food that looked like it could make a cholesterol sensor explode, and the people that were currently filling the place. A repetitive drum-and-bass mix filled the air, giving the place a vibe more suited to a nightclub than a tavern.

“Did we really need to come here?” River whispered to the Doctor, as they walked through the crowd. The place was popular tonight, it seemed, as it was filled to the brim with Shobogans of every kind.

“Relax, River.” The Doctor replied. “It looks reputable enough.”

River shot a glance to the Doctor like he was insane.

The Doctor smiled. “Trust me, I know what I’m doing. Local bartenders know everything. Give me five minutes, and I’ll know the gossip of everyone in town.” He turned to his granddaughter. “Why don’t you two go find a table? I think I smell Kronkburgers… ‘s making me hungry.”

Susan tilted her head dryly. “Is now really the time?”

“Rule number 408: Time is not the boss of you!” The Doctor replied theatrically, making a show of spinning his cane. “Which leads back into rule 403: Always waste time when you don’t have any. Back in a tick!” He grinned smugly, before marching off towards the front counter of the place.

“I hate him sometimes.” River grumbled, shaking her head.

“No you don’t!” The Doctor yelled back, having somehow heard her.

**_**DW**_ **

The Rani marched through the hallway to her lab, disregarding anyone and everyone in the small stretch of corridor she found herself in. Originally, she’d been brought into the Timeless Children to develop new weapons for them, even being granted her own private lab for experiments and research.

She snorted to herself in derision. What a pompous name… and here she thought ‘Time Lords’ was bad.

Approaching the steel door set into the wall, the Rani input her security code, the door sliding a moment later to allow her access.

The Rani crossed the threshold, coming to a dead stop when she saw the man standing inside. The man she was fairly certain she’d hadn’t given the access code to.

“Magister,” The Rani almost growled, “ _What_ are you doing in here?”

“Now, now,” The Magister put his hands up defensively. “I only wished to have a private discussion with friend.” He smiled, but on his black-bearded face, it looked more like a predator barring its teeth, “Surely, even you and I can act civilized without that buffoon watching over us?”

“Perhaps.” The Rani crossed her arms. “But you’ve still neglected to explain what you’re doing in here.”

The Magister raised an eyebrow. “You’re not curious as to how I got access to your inner sanctum?”

“I can find the guard responsible and dispose of him in one of the protein vats myself.” The Rani shot back. “Now, explain, before I do the same to you.”

“Very well,” The Magister began examining his nails, “Recently, I stumbled into an… interesting section of the Matrix. What I was looking for beforehand is… irrelevant, but in my searching, I found a cordoned-off section of the Matrix, and the data within quite… captivating. More specifically… I now know who you are.”

“I see.” The Rani put her hands behind her back. “I wasn’t aware such data still existed, even within the Matrix. Elective Semantectomy is notoriously thorough.”

“Oh yes, quite thorough.” The Magister replied. “But it seems whoever initiated the process was in quite a rush. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”

“I’m afraid not.” The Rani smiled in response, as one of her hands, still behind her back, drifted into her pocket.

The Magister rolled his eyes. “Don’t bother trying to pull a weapon on me, I’ve put this room into a state of temporal grace.”

“Then it appears you can’t fire your weapon either.” The Rani replied. “I hope you haven’t actually come here to kill me. Because you are failing horribly thus far.”

“No, no killing.” The Magister leveled. “In fact, I propose something… quite different. I require capable allies, you see… Change is coming to Gallifrey, like no other, it will be swift and-“

“Quit pontificating.” The Rani ordered. “Just come out with it.”

The Magister gave a frustrated huff. “Very well. The end to our… glorious revolution is coming to a close. And when it does, it will be me, not that oaf Boffin, at the top of our new order. But I hold no illusions… maintaining control of Gallifrey will be difficult. I will need someone competent, capable, and controlled to help me enforce my rule.”

The Rani snorted. “You’re offering me political power? Such a thing doesn’t interest me, you know that.”

“I do.” The Magister nodded in agreement. “But I also know that there is nothing more in this universe that interests you more than your scientific pursuits. That is what I offer you. An environment to continue your experiments freely. No High Council breathing down your neck, all of the test subjects you could ever want or need…”

The Rani huffed. “Boffin offers me the same thing. What makes yours so different?”

“Ah, I can offer you something Boffin never would.” The Magister grinned. “The Timeless Child.”

The Rani began to get a greedy glint in her eye.

**DW**

The Doctor swiftly dodged a falling drunk Shobogan, as he made his way up to the bar. The Doctor leaned against the flat surface, as the lone bartender behind frantically tried to keep the drinks coming.

“Excuse me!” The Doctor called.

“Hold on just a minute!” The bartender shot back. “I’m trying to juggle more things than a circus clown!”

The Doctor frowned, that voice seemed… familiar. “Do I know you from somewhere?”

“Oh, I just think I got one o’ them faces.” The bartender shot back.

The Doctor recoiled slightly, as it finally clicked. “Sabalom Glitz!”

Glitz jumped, dropping the mugs he was holding. “Oh, damn!” He cursed, quickly scrambling to clean up the resultant mess. “No, no, I think you have me mistaken. No… Abslom Daak here.”

“Yes, it is you!” The Doctor pointed the tip of the cane in Gliz’s direction. “I should’ve known… The name ‘Nosferatu’ is a dead giveaway. What the hell are you doing here?” He demanded.

“What’s it to you?” Glitz sneered. “Another Timey, come down here to interfere with my livelihood?”

“Another!” A drunk man off to the side roared, throwing his mug on the floor.

Glitz rolled his eyes at the man’s antics. “Ace, will you take care of him!?”

“Watch the floors, mate!” A young brunette came running out. “We just polished ‘em!”

“Ace?” The Doctor turned in her direction, as she gave the drunken Gallifreyan a good scolding. The Doctor flinched. He knew what it was like to be on the wrong end of her temper… Well, technically it wasn’t his Ace, alternate realities and all… He _really_ needed to look into finding a way back, soon.

“Oi!” Glitz poked the Doctor in the shoulder, bringing the Time Lord’s attention back on him. “Now,” Glitz leaned close to the Doctor, lowering his voice. “I’ll give you to the count of three. Who sent you, and why? And if you don’t answer, I can have lovely little Ace,” He gestured, “Throw you out on your arse faster than you can blink.”

“What’s she even doing here?” The Doctor questioned. “Last I knew, she was on Iceworld working the Ice Cream Parlor.”

Glitz frowned suspiciously. “How’d you know that?”

“I’ve met her.” The Doctor said. “But she wouldn’t remember me. Never mind that, what’s she doing here?” He looked Glitz up and down. “With _you?”_

“If you must know,” Glitz huffed. “I picked her up on Iceworld in a game of Pazaak. Quite the investment, if I do say so myself…”

The Doctor frowned distastefully. “Quite.” There’d be time to hassle Glitz for his… poor choice of habits, but for now, there was something he had to do. “Let me tell it to you straight, Glitz. I’m the Doctor, and I need information, information you might have. And I’m willing to pay quite a lot for it.”

Glitz’s eyes sparkled. “Well, why didn’t you say so earlier?” He questioned heartily. “Need to know the stock market fluctuations for the next three weeks? Tomorrow’s lottery numbers? Where to find the Doom Slayer’s hidden tomb? I’m your man!”

“Good,” The Doctor replied, “Because I need to know where the Timeless Children are operating from.”

Glitz instantly paled. “Nope, nope, no can do!”

“Oh, I think you can.” The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out a diamond. Not just any diamond, the White-Point Star that powered the Immortality Gate back during the Master’s attempt to transform everyone on Earth into a copy of himself. Though the mechanisms powering the link were destroyed, the diamond itself remained intact, and the Doctor had seen fit to recover it at the time.

Glitz started at the sparkling crystal, almost transfixed by it, before he shook it off, turning away. “Nope, can’t do it!”

“Really?” The Doctor asked slowly, almost waving the diamond around.

“Look, I’m sorry, Doc!” Glitz apologized. “But these guys are no joke, proper ‘leave no witnesses’ types! They’ll kill me if I tell you! If you want to join ‘em, they’ll find you!”

“Come on, Glitz.” The Doctor leaned against the smooth surface charismatically. “There has to be something to make it worth your while… You a betting man?”

Glitz huffed. “Only the best gambler this side of the three galaxies.”

“Then, perhaps you’d be up for a friendly wager?” The Doctor suggested.

Glitz glanced away, then back to the Time Lord. “What sort of wanger?”

“Well, I’ll make it simple.” The Doctor outlined. “I win, I get the information I want… oh, and the girl.” He gestured over to Ace.

“And what do I win?” Glitz demanded.

“This, of course.” The Doctor held up the diamond.

“No offense, Doc, but pretty trinket that might be, I’m already loaded.” Glitz replied. “How about… those two pretty ones that came in with you?”

The Doctor glanced over to River and Susan, conversing among themselves at a table, completely unaware that anything was going on. The Doctor looked back to Glitz, seeing the man’s greedy expression written all over his features.

Glitz, evidently, thought he either had this in the bag, or had convinced the Doctor to give up.

Glitz had done neither.

The Doctor smiled, shaking Glitz’s hand. “We have a deal. So, Mister Glitz, how good are you _really_ at Pazaak?”


	8. The House Always Wins

“Quite a marvelous device, don’t you agree? The power to break down the walls of reality themselves…” The Magister remarked, looking to the cannon-shaped apparatus stood in the center of the room.

“You needn’t flatter me with flowery language.” The Rani shot back. “I’m well aware of my craftsmanship. What are you aiming to do with it?”

“Oh, something quite simple, in theory.” The Magister turned back to her. “In its present configuration, the device is capable of generating a wormhole capable of two-way access, yes?”

“You know that.” The Rani crossed her arms. “Why are you continuing to waste my time with your pointless drivel, get on with it.”

“Very well,” The Magister huffed. “Boffin plans to set the wormhole’s other end to appear in the Timeless Child’s Realm.”

“That’s ridiculous.” The Rani retorted. “Even if such a place existed, where would it be? And how would that Neanderthal know where it is?”

“He claims to have been contacted by the beings on the other side.” The Magister informed her.

The Rani slowly turned to the Magister. “ _What?_ Why wasn’t I informed of this? The scientific-“

“ _Scientific_?” The Magister repeated incredulously. “The moron thinks the beings on the other side are gods. He plans to go there as a… pilgrimage.” He laughed.

“Without any idea if the things on the other side are hostile?” The Rani questioned. “If they are hostile…”

“Precisely.” The Magister smiled. “Thus, why I wish to intervene, as it were. If they are hostile, they will be capable of coming through in force. The damage to Gallifrey as a result would be catastrophic. But if we were to reconfigure the device to project a one-way wormhole…”

“The beings on the other side will not come through, and Boffin will be out of the way.” The Rani finished, a devious smirk crossing her features.

The Magister nodded, still grinning. “Now, shall we begin?”

**_**DW**_ **

“Careful, Doc.” Glitz warned with a smug smile as he held his cards. “You might’ve got me last round, but I got you in the first.”

“Yes, yes, I know, two out of three.” The Doctor grumbled as he looked down at his hand. Glitz had the advantage, it seemed. The Doctor needed a one to put him on twenty, but the odds of that happening now were infinitesimally low.

“You could fold now.” Glitz recommended. “’Course, that’d mean I win.” He grinned, as he looked over to River and Susan. “The one in the curls looks like she’d be good for waitin’ tables, not sure what I’d do with the other one, maybe-“

“Pazaak.” The Doctor called.

“What?” Glitz looked back to the Doctor.

The Time Lord had laid his cards face up on the table, allowing Glitz to see.

The Doctor had scored a perfect twenty.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to collect my winnings.” The Doctor clasped his hands behind his back.

“Now, hold on!” Glitz pointed. “You cheated! No one beats me at Pazaak!”

“I believe I just have.” The Doctor retorted. “As for if I cheated… Come on Glitz… You let me choose the playing field, the terms… Didn’t anyone ever tell you, ‘the house always wins?’”

Glitz spluttered. “Now, hold on, you can’t just-“

“Oi!” Ace called, marching up. “What’s going on over ‘ere? You’re making a scene!”

“Not now, Ace!” Glitz told her.

“Actually, it is now.” The Doctor replied. “Miss Ace, I just beat your boss fair and square here in a bet. Your contract is now mine.”

Ace paled slightly. “Really?”

“Yep, and now that it is,” The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver, pointing it at her. He pressed down the button, and the little cuff around her wrist sparked as it opened, falling to the ground. “I release you from it.”

A giant smile overtook Ace’s features. “Ace!”

“Wait, you can’t-“

“Glitz,” The Doctor turned back to him, “I’ll be taking that information now.”

Glitz let out a defeated, frustrated sigh. “They’re in one of the tenements near one of the Capitol’s supports.”

The Doctor smiled. “Thank you very much.” The Doctor marched back over to Susan and River.

Susan looked up at him expectantly. “You have it?”

“Yep.” The Doctor smiled and winked. “Come on,” He waved for both of them to follow. “We’ve work to do.”

Nodding, Susan and River got up from their seats, following the Doctor out of the Tavern, back in the direction towards the TARDIS. They made it to the ship, and were about to enter, when they were suddenly cut off.

“Wait!” Someone shouted, running after them.

The Doctor stopped, frowning as he turned back. “Ace?” He questioned, as she sprinted to keep up.

“Yeah… You’re a Time Lord, right?” She asked. “You have a TARDIS?”

The Doctor nodded. “Why?”

“Get me out of here.” She requested. “Anywhere that’s not here.”

The Doctor glanced to Susan and River and gestured for them to proceed into the TARDIS. They did so, leaving just the Doctor and Ace. “It’s going to be dangerous.”

“I can handle myself.” Ace crossed her arms defensively.

 _‘That’s exactly what I’m afraid of…’_ The Doctor thought to himself. “Right, if you’re sure, there need to be rules. Rule number one:” The Doctor laid down. “Don’t wander off.”

“Of course, whatever you want!”

“Rule two: Do everything I tell you.” The Doctor continued. “Rule three… Well,” He smiled and winked, “I can think that one up later.”

“Ace!” Ace beamed.

“Right,” The Doctor gestured to the TARDIS. “Come along, Ace. We’ve got work to do.”


	9. Caught

Boffin sighed, as the door slid closed behind him, cutting him off from the rest of the building. He stepped into his private quarters, cordoned off from the rest of the tenements he and his followers called home.

Reaching into his robes, Boffin pulled out a small key, as he pulled a charcoal black box, the size of an orange, out of his desk. Sliding the key into the lock, Boffin lifted the lid, revealing the small, glowing purple crystal inside.

Closing his eyes, Boffin reached out, making contact with the crystal.

 _“Ah…”_ An ethereal voice rang throughout his mind, male and female, young and old, and echoing as if it were on the other end of a long tunnel. _“Our Emissary has returned to us. What news do you bring?”_

“We’re almost ready to open the Gate.” Boffin thought back in response, keeping his eyes closed. “Your followers are ready.”

 _“Good, good…”_ The Voice replied absently. _“But what of… my child?”_

Boffin shook his head sadly. “In the company of a Time Lord. I don’t know what lies she is being fed, but we will have to open the gate without her, I’m afraid.”

 _“Unfortunate… But acceptable…”_ The voice paused _. “Were you aware the Gate device has been sabotaged?”_

Boffin recoiled slightly. “What? I-I assure you, I haven’t-“

 _“I thought so.”_ The Voice cut him off. _“It is a simple thing to rectify, I can talk you through the necessary repairs… You do wish to assist, yes?”_

“Of course.” Boffin nodded humbly. “Whatever you wish.”

_“Excellent, now, listen to me carefully…”_

_**DW**_

The TARDIS landed at the dead-end of a long, winding, labyrinthian corridor, in one of the storage areas deep within the building.

The doors creaked open, and the Doctor peeked his head out first, glancing around, before motioning for the others behind him to follow.

“Oh, I like this place.” River remarked sarcastically, looking around the dark and cramped area. “Very DOOM 3.”

Susan whipped around, pointing at River furiously. “That game is a stain on the franchise, don’t you dare mention its name!”

River crossed her arms, pouting. “I liked it…”

“Quit it, you two.” The Doctor chastised as he worked on opening one of the doors. “We’ve got guests, remember?”

“Whoa…” Ace breathed as she opened up one of the crates, hefting a large gun out of it. Three glass tubes ran down, tapering off at the barrel, with an aluminum grip at the back end. “Look at this thing.”

The Doctor frowned in her direction. “Put that down. For all we know, it’s rigged to explode.”

“Doctor,” River grabbed his attention, as she stood over another crate, pulling out an identical weapon. “Another one.”

“Hey, what did I just say?”

“I’ve never seen a weapon like this.” River noted to herself, making a point to ignore the Doctor.

“Give me that,” The Doctor yanked it out of her hands, frowning down at it. A moment later, his brow furrowed in confusion. “Hold on…”

“What is it?” Susan inquired.

“Some kind of energy projector, I would say Time Lord in design.” The Doctor responded. “But it’s not… The metals used are all Gallifreyan, but the design is alien. We’d never build anything like this.”

“Energy?” Ace repeated, setting hers down carefully. “Whatd’you mean?”

“Well, it’s inert.” The Doctor frowned, looking over the weapon. “But it shouldn’t be. All the mechanisms are on, it’s powered… But it won’t activate. Like it’s… waiting for something.”

The door into the storage room hissed as it suddenly opened, filling the room with light, as someone new entered

“You would be correct.” The Magister said, leveling a staser at the Doctor.

River, moving swiftly, drew her own gun from her holster. The Magister reacted quickly, blasting it out of her hand, and disintegrating it.

“Computer-assisted targeting.” The Magister boasted. “I think you’ll find it also works on organic matter just as well.”

“How’d you know we were in here?” Ace questioned.

The Magister affixed her with a look that could only be described as disappointment. “We’ve been hiding from the Time Lords for ages. Did you think detecting a simple TARDIS materialization was beyond us?”

“Well… yes.” The Doctor held up his hands. “But look! You’ve got us right where you want us, no weapons, no backup… We’re no threat, why waste good Staser energy trying to kill us? Especially… when you have the Timeless Child right here.”

“Indeed?” The Magister laughed. “I never believed Boffin’s pontificating… No, as far as I am concerned, you’re nothing more than a freak.” He shot at Susan. “But… He is about to discover that his Gateway will blow up in his face… Imagine how the rest of his followers will react when I bring the saboteurs straight to them?”

The Doctor glared. “We’re your scapegoats.”

“Indubitably.” The Magister grinned, waving his staser out into the hall. “Now, move.”

Ace snorted. “You think you’re gonna kill all four of us by yourself?”

“It has a wide-beam setting.” The Magister retorted. “Now, move!”

The four glanced at each other, and followed the Magister’s direction, allowing them to be forced down the narrow corridor.

**_**DW**_ **

The Rani paced around the console room of her TARDIS, tucked safely away in her lab, disguised as an equipment locker.

She was so close now… she could almost taste victory.

She flicked a switch on the console, the screen activating to show a security feed of the storage room where the Doctor’s TARDIS had landed.

She smiled, cold and clinically upon seeing Susan’s face.

“My child,” The Rani recognized her, “After all these years… Time to come back to your mother.”


	10. The Timeless One

“Get in here.” The Magister ordered, shoving them into a large auditorium. “The show is about to begin…”

Ace frowned angrily. “Buddy, if you don’t-“

The Doctor held a hand up, cutting her off. “What show?” He demanded.

The Magister smiled sinisterly. “The event all of these people,” He gestured to the crowds ahead, all of them looking towards the stage expectantly. “Have been working so diligently to make reality. Why not stay a while? Partake in the festivities?”

“It’s not like we have a choice, do we?” Susan rhetorically asked in response.

“No, you don’t.” The Magister replied, looking to the stage. “Ah, it’s starting.”

The spotlights overhead clicked on, the entire room falling silent, as the old man in the white robes walked out.

Boffin walked up to the podium and looked over the room. He grinned upon seeing the massive crowd of people, five hundred at least, looking at him intently.

“Greetings, friends!” Boffin threw out his arms, looking at his enthralled audience. “Together, we have achieved a great many things. We’ve united countless people from all walks of life, in pursuit of one goal. We’ve fought hard to make that goal a reality. And though our brothers and sisters on the front lines have been tricked into stopping, we’ve continued that fight on every shore, every city, everywhere on Gallifrey! And now, it is my great pleasure to tell you that our next great achievement is finally about to be made reality!”

“What’s he going on about?” River whispered to the Doctor, as the crowd erupted into cheers.

“I don’t know… But I don’t like it.”

“Yes, yes…” Boffin smiled as the crowd settled. “Our noble goal of achieving justice for the Timeless Child is just around the corner, but first… we must take a different leap. I know there are some of you who hold… doubts about my leadership. About my status as the one chosen to lead this crusade... But, I’m here to tell you that those doubts are unfounded!” He held up his right hand, clutched in it, a small purple crystal for all to see. “For the proof is here for you to see!”

Susan froze in fear, feeling repulsed by the thing in Boffin’s hand.

“Susan?” The Doctor turned to her in worry. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t…” She stuttered. “I don’t know. That thing, it feels… familiar.”

“My brothers and sisters, this is no mere gemstone!” Boffin continued. “But a means of communication across the vast, black void that separates our reality from countless others. With this, I have been able to commune with the beings that sent the Timeless Child to us! And, in turn, they have shown me a way to enter their realm. But this will not be a privilege I reserve for myself, oh no. All of you, who call yourselves my devoted, shall be permitted entry freely!”

The Rani, aided by a team of lab assistants, wheeled the large, clockwork cannon out onto the stage.

Ace snorted. “Doesn’t take a genius to see that’s not good.”

“Quiet, all of you.” The Magister berated. “Observe.”

The Rani opened a panel on the side of the device, allowing access to a small circular socket inside.

“This,” Boffin presented the crystal, “Is the link. And with it, travel between the worlds will become possible.” Boffin marched over to the panel, and placed the crystal into the socket, the Rani closing the panel behind him.

Circuitry on the outside of the device began to glow the same purple hue as the gem, as a stream of violet particles began to shoot out from the barrel, seemingly impacting against nothing in the solid air.

“And now… the Gate shall open!” Boffin proclaimed, as the space at the end of the beam began to split open vertically bathing the entire room in a white glow.

“Oh my God…” The Doctor shielded his eyes, as a shadowy figure began to coalesce at the center of the boundary.

“Hold on…” The Magister stepped back slightly. “He was supposed to journey to the other side.”

“Yeah, well....” The Doctor shot back. “I think he’s long since gone off the rails.”

The figure stepped out of the fissure, and everyone in the room looked on, awestruck, at the woman before them.

She floated about a foot off the ground, with no feet or arms to speak of, only paper-thin tendrils that would be light-years long were they unfurled completely, attached to a vaguely humanoid torso. She was not wearing any clothing whatsoever, her exposed ‘skin’ being completely black and featureless, save for the occasional pinprick of light that made it look like the background of space. Her face was like a porcelain mask, with no visible head, just a free-floating face somehow keeping attached to her torso.

“She’s beautiful…” The Doctor breathed, entranced by the otherworldly creature before him.

 _“Followers of Boffin…”_ The alien spoke, overlooking all those assembled. _“I am the Timeless One… I would like to thank you all, personally, for your diligent service and devotion.”_

Susan’s eyebrows stitched together, frowning. “…Mother?”

The Timeless One looked directly towards Susan and continued speaking. _“But alas, all good things must come to an end. Thank you all for attending this rally… But I am afraid this is goodbye.”_

The people within the auditorium looked at each other, confused, before the Timeless One began to float higher in the air, uncoiling her starry tendrils. One shot out, striking Boffin in the sternum, and he froze, face twisted in agony, as he began to disappear in a golden glow.

Then, the Timeless One began to turn her attention towards the group in the back.

 _“I am sorry to do this to you, my child, but I am afraid you have failed me.”_ The Timeless One apologized. _“Should it comfort you… it will not be painful.”_

And then, she struck.


	11. Psithyrus

“Not so fast!” The Rani proclaimed as she threw down a disc under the Timeless One. The alien screeched in pain, as her tendrils banged against the barrier.

Jumping off the stage, the Rani sprinted towards the group in the back.

The Doctor’s eyes widened, and he pointed at the Rani accusingly. “You!”

“Me!” The Rani replied, running up.

“I thought you said you altered the device!” The Magister accused as the Rani approached.

“I did you oaf!” The Rani shot back, looking to the device on stage. “Boffin must have somehow discovered the sabotage… Oh, well, what can you do?” She shrugged. “Come on.”

“Oi, hold on!” Ace stepped in their way. “Where’re you two going?”

The Magister and Rani glanced at each other.

“Not here.” The Magister stated, pushing past the young woman.

“Farewell!” The Rani called as she and the Magister disappeared into the corridors. “Have fun sorting this mess out!”

 _“Stop!”_ The Timeless One banged against the wall of her energy prison. _“Don’t you dare leave! I’ll kill you! Tecteun, I command you, return at once!”_

“Tecteun!?” Susan repeated, turning to the corridor with a burning fire in her eyes. “Oh no… She’s not getting away that easily.” She snarled, sprinting down the corridor after them.

“Susan, wait!” The Doctor called to her. They needed to stop the Timeless One first, before she could harm the other people in the compound.

“Don’t worry!” River shot to the Doctor as she took off after Susan. “I’ll keep my eye on her!”

“Well, that’s great!” Ace sarcastically yelled. “Leave the cripple to stop the rampaging alien goddess!”

“Oi, I’m not a cripple!” The Doctor shot back, thwacking Ace with the cane.

“Point made! But what do we do!?” She questioned, yelling over the roaring of the portal, and the crowd’s panicking.

The Doctor held out his hand to Ace, as the barrier around the Timeless One began to weaken.

“Give me some of that Nitro-9.” He ordered. After a moment, an old repurposed deodorant can was thrust into the Doctor’s hand. “Hey, you!” The Doctor yelled to the Timeless One as she broke free. “Ah, ah!” The Doctor held the can up for her to see, as the Timeless One’s tendrils shot out. “Hold it, unless you want to be blown sky-high!”

The Timeless One’s tendrils froze, as the Doctor gripped onto the timer on the top of the can.

“You know what this is?” The Doctor questioned, brandishing the can. “Nitro-9. Nitroglycerin with a bit of trinitrotoluene for an added kick. And it’s already primed.” He reported, clicking the button on the top. “Now, the slightest jostle will cause the striker inside to rub against the inside of the can, making a spark , and setting it off.” The Doctor informed her, as she floated down off the stage towards him, as the rest of the crowd looked on in fear. “Kill me, try to take this from me, or do something I don’t like, and this room’s going to get the fastest remodel in history.”

The Timeless One’s eyes narrowed, as she looked the Doctor up and down. _“You would sacrifice yourself to allow these monsters to go free?”_

“They’re not the ones who came through a portal spouting thanks, only to slaughter them a moment later.” The Doctor growled in response.

_“They tortured my child!”_

“And, unless I’m mistaken, the one person actually responsible for it is about to meet her end.” The Doctor’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “How’d you know Tecteun was here?”

 _“My kind have watched your universe for eons.”_ The Timeless One answered. _“All those who came into contact with my child were surveilled.”_

“Kind of a stupid question…” The Doctor bristled, muttering to himself. “Never mind that, how is Tecteun even alive?”

_“She subjected herself to a similar rebirth as yourself. She chose to deconstruct herself and reconstitute at a later date.”_

“The Loom…” The Doctor’s eyebrows stitched together. “She threw herself inside like I did… And her essence was woven into someone else… The Rani?”

The Timeless One bristled with rage, momentarily flashing red. _“Her essence reasserted itself in the girl upon looking into your ‘Untempered Schism.’ She will not escape justice for what she has done.”_

“So, you came here for revenge.” The Doctor deduced. “But there’s something more behind it… Susan’s good, peak physical condition when compared to the rest of us Time Lords, in fact. But she’s nothing like you…” The Doctor’s eyes narrowed. “I mean, you’re a big, wiggly, tentacle lady with a floating mask for a face, excuse me for not seeing the family resemblance. But, it is rather suspicious, don’t you think? Something tells me it isn’t just developmental difficulties.”

“…Brood parasites.” Ace spoke up, causing the Doctor to glance at her inquisitively. “I learned about them in school. They’re things that look like another species young.”

“Yes, I’m familiar.” The Doctor turned back to face the Timeless One with a growing look of contempt. “It makes sense… I always found it kind of odd that Tecteun reached the boundary just before a baby came out of it. The odds of that happening are, and I’m being generous here, infinitesimally low… unless the odds were rigged, of course.”

The Timeless One recoiled, affronted. _“You would accuse me of-“_

“Yes, I am.” The Doctor cut her off. “Because that’s the thing about brood parasites. They’re not just babies you pawn off to someone else, they’re living weapons. Some species of bee for example kill and replace the queen, hijacking the colony…”

“What are you getting at, professor?” Ace questioned.

“Most sapient species don’t take part in brood parasitism.” The Doctor answered. “The emotional attachment, the drive to protect their young, is too strong… Unless we’re talking about war. In which case, someone will do anything to gain an upper hand.”

“So, you’re saying-“

“The Timeless Child was sent here intentionally.” The Doctor concluded. “To weaken Gallifrey from the inside out, to allow you to come through and invade… And it worked.”

The Timeless One sneered, all pretense of kindness and divinity well and truly gone, as the portal behind her shimmered sinisterly _. “And you played your part perfectly.”_

“This is all my fault.” The Doctor realized, drawing in an uncomfortable breath. “I took her in to be raised, and I brought her back here on accident, which sparked the war…”

“Professor?”

“All these lives lost, all this destruction…” The Doctor blankly muttered to himself. “I could have prevented it before it even began.”

“Professor!”

“What?” The Doctor demanded, turning to Ace.

“Beat yourself up over it later.” She berated him. “For now… We need to focus on kicking this bitch’s starry ass.”

The Doctor recoiled back slightly, before turning to the Timeless one. “My sailor-mouthed protégé here is right!” He directed to the Timeless One.

“ _Oh_?” The Timeless One tilted her face.

“You take a child, throw her onto an alien world, leaving her to the mercy of whatever creature would find her? And then, you manipulate a man’s misguided, but genuine belief in order to come through and cause wanton destruction? You know what that makes you?” The Doctor rhetorically asked. “A monster.”

“ _And what do you suppose to do about it?”_

“Like my friend said.” The Doctor began, staring the Timeless One down. “We’re going to kick your starry ass.”


	12. General Kenobi

“Get back here!” Susan shouted, as she and River pursued the Magister and the Rani, who she now supposed was in actuality, Tecteun. “I’m going to rip your head off and feed it to a Yahg!”

“Watch it with the anger, Suzie.” River admonished. “The last thing I need is your grandfather harping on about me being a bad influence.”

“You’re a terrible influence.” Susan shot back as they turned a corner, trying to keep the other two Time Lords in their sights. “I just-“ Susan found herself suddenly cut off, as she ran into a blue translucent barrier that appeared out of nowhere. “Ow!”

“Forcefield.” River commented, as another one sprung up behind them. She turned to Susan, as she shook off her disorientation from the impact. “Do you still have the sonic screwdriver the Doctor gave you?”

Susan, rubbing her nose, reached into one of the pockets of her suit jacket for the device. Pressing down the button, her device whirred, as she ran it along the forcefield. “The emitters are out of range…” She suddenly frustratedly kicked the forcefield.

“Calm down, Susan.” River instructed.

“I’m not going to let Tecteun-the Rani-whoever, escape!”

“I know,” River replied. “But you can’t let yourself get emotional. Your grandfather does that, and that’s when he makes mistakes.” She glanced around the small space they found themselves in. “There has to be a way out of this… Ah.” She smiled, looking down at a vent grate near the floor. “Here we are.”

“That’s an absurdly spacious air duct.” Susan commented, crouching down to look at the grate with River.

“I don’t believe it’s an air duct.” River replied, peering inside. “They’re transport ducts, for little robots, see?” She pointed inside, as a hovering drone flew past. “Defense drones? Maintenance… Either way, it’s spacious enough for us to use it.”

Susan nodded in agreement and turned to the grate. Pressing down the button on the screwdriver, the hatch slid up, allowing Susan and River to enter.

“Any idea where we’re going?” Susan questioned as they began to crawl further into the tunnels, as a drone turned around, flying down an alternate route to bypass them.

“Not a clue.”

**_**DW**_ **

A hatch on the ceiling of a storage room slid open, and River and Susan jumped down, the hatch sliding closed behind them.

“Look,” Susan directed River, looking in one of the boxes. “More of these weapons from before.”

“And something else.” River commented, walking over to a tall, metal tube standing in the center of the room. “What is this?”

Susan’s eyebrows stitched together inquisitively, as she walked over to the storage unit, pressing her sonic screwdriver against the keypad. Pressing down the button, the doors to the tube retracted inward in response.

“Well, whatever it is, it isn’t deadlocked.” Susan commented, as the inside of the tube began to illuminate.

River, staring appreciatively at the contents inside, breathed; “Hello gorgeous…”

A tall, bulky suit of armor, decked out in bronze and red, stood fully assembled on the inside of the storage unit, empty, waiting for someone to put it on.

“I think it’s power armor…” Susan frowned, scanning the suit.

River turned to her. “A very nice suit of power armor.”

“Quite…” Susan’s brow furrowed. “But I don’t understand… We don’t even _use_ power armor. With the weapons Time Lord society’s developed, any benefits from the technology would be ultimately useless.”

“Unless it was built for use against something else.” River suggested, turning back to the suit in the tube. “…Dibs.”

“Excuse me?”

“Dibs. I called dibs; this is my armor now.”

“You can’t call dibs on a suit of armor we know nothing about!”

“Dibs. Oh! Look, I did it again!”

“…If it blows up when you try to put it on, I’m going to laugh.”

**_**DW**_ **

“Oh, dear…” Tecteun frowned as she looked at the monitor on her TARDIS console. River was stepping into the suit, giving the gauntlets an experimental tug as she put on the helmet. “They’ve found the Centurion armor.”

The Magister frowned, walking around to join her. “The what?”

“It was a… shall we say, contingency plan, in case the aliens from the other side chose to invade in force.” Tecteun explained. “In case they had, I was going to distribute the suits in order to fight them off.”

The Magister scowled. “Why wasn’t I told about this?”

“…Would you believe that I figured you would be the first to die, so I didn’t bother?” Tecteun replied, as River picked up one of the weapons in the storage room, the gun lighting up blue as she held it. “And she’s found one of the Gluon Accelerators…”

“I thought you said those were useless without the power systems!”

“…They’re also built to draw energy from the suit.”

“Were you drunk when you brainstormed those ideas up!?” The Magister demanded.

Tecteun huffed, crossing her arms. “I don’t have to explain myself to you.”

“You’re supposed to be one of the most brilliant scientists that has ever lived, I refuse to believe you capable of such incompetence!” The Magister turned back to the console. “Case in point; why haven’t we taken off yet!?”

Tecteun’s TARDIS suddenly shook, as something banged against the outside.

“She’s here!” The Magister jumped in alarm, as the view switched to an exterior view of River in the armor banging against the doors of the faux-metal locker. “Shoot her!”

“This is a TARDIS, not a tank!” Tecteun retorted. “What am I going to do, lecture her to death?”

The doors were suddenly kicked open, River and Susan marching into the console room with almost murderous intent.

“Well…” Tecteun held her hands up, the Magister following suit. “Hello there.”


	13. Family Reunion

“Ace, move!” The Doctor ordered, as he charged forward, sliding under the floating form of the Timeless One, jumping to his feet once he was at the other side.

The Timeless One whipped around, ready to lash out at the Doctor again now that she knew the Nitro-9 being armed was a complete lie.

But before the Timeless One’s tendrils could shoot out, Ace snatched the Doctor’s cane out of his hands, whacking the Timeless One with enough force to send the alien to the ground.

“Plasteel construction!” The Doctor grinned, taking his cane back. “Light, but it packs a wallop!” He turned to Ace. “Come on!” He guided Ace, sprinting over to the machine generating the portal while the Timeless One looked around, disoriented.

“How’d you do that!?” Ace questioned, as the Doctor began to root around in the innards of the generator.

“Diverted resources from another part of my body into the leg for a quick boost!” He explained, as he began pushing aside wires and removing electronic chips. “Now, be quiet.” He directed, as he began to probe deeper into the internal mechanisms of the portal device. “Why isn’t this working!?” He roared, as he ripped out the generator’s power source.

 _“The Breach has become self-sustaining.”_ The Timeless One dripped with fury as she floated back up, prepared to strike once more.

_“And now… my Kin shall cross over.”_

**_**DW**_ **

“Tecteun…” Susan clenched a fist, as she glared ahead at the Time Lady standing near the control console.

Tecteun, putting up her hands, smiled gently. “Hello again, my daughter. It’s been quite some time, Nyar-“

“It’s _Susan.”_ She stressed angrily, stepping closer furiously. “And you aren’t even worthy of calling me that.”

“Now… Is that any way to treat your mother?”

“You lost that right after you started experimenting on me.” Susan spat.

“Is that what you’re angry about?” Tecteun lowered her arms, looking pityingly at Susan. “Oh, my little girl… If I’d known you’d remember, I’d have taken steps to make sure you wouldn’t.”

“What!?” River boomed. “You torture your own child, and now that she’s here, all you have to say is that you would’ve made her forget!?”

“I don’t expect you to understand.” Tecteun scoffed. “But the scientific benefits were too great to pass up… Every culture in the universe, no matter how hard they try to deny it, disguise it, is built upon the suffering of others. When I discovered your ability, I asked myself if it was worth it. If ensuring the potential of every Gallifreyan being faced with the potential of becoming deformed masses of flesh after each regeneration being reduced to zero was really worth the suffering of someone else… And I decided, yes. If it wasn’t for you, our entire world would be built on a foundation of corpses. What was done to you was the outcome of a simple calculation, nothing more, nothing less.”

“And that makes what you did okay!?” Susan demanded.

“’Okay’ is a subjective term.” Tecteun retorted. “The concept of morality itself, in fact, is not objective. Do the ants under our boots care that we kill others of our own kind? No. Does the wolf concern itself about the implications of eating another species’ young? Of course not! The only difference between us and these animals, is that we pretend to be outraged… until the outrage has served its purpose, and we can all go back to living as we were before.”

“I don’t know.” River sneered. “Those people out there looked like they were ready to burn the planet until the Timeless One showed up.”

“Which only proves my point.” Tecteun stated. “Those imbeciles out there followed leadership that was out to get its own members after their main goal had been accomplished. The ‘Timeless Children’” She scoffed, “Are nothing more than thugs, the young and the stupid fighting because the old and the power-hungry told them it was just.”

“Like you were any better!” Susan furiously replied in response. “You may not have been a thug, but you still tortured a child!”

“I know…” Tecteun looked down. “And that decision still haunts me to this day… But I ask you this; Think of how many owe their continued existences to your sacrifice?” Tecteun proposed. “Before, regeneration was spinning the chamber of a gun, and hoping it came up empty. Now, it’s like a game of roulette. You can lose… but you can’t die. The decision haunts me… but I do not regret it.”

Susan began to shake with anger. “And then you threw yourself into a Loom to evade justice.”

“I did.” Tecteun confirmed. “But you must understand, my work- our work, was too important to be let go. Think about it, Susan. We could cure the intrinsic flaw of regeneration itself, there would no longer have to be a limit. The Time Lords, for the very first time, could be well and truly immortal.”

“No.” Susan retorted. “I won’t do it! I won’t believe someone who tortured a child they believed to be their own!”

“If not for me, would you do it for your…” Tecteun huffed derisively. “Grandfather?”

River narrowed her eyes, face clearly visible through the helmet’s visor. “What are you talking about?”

“The Doctor. He’s on his final life.” Tecteun stated.

“No, no.” Susan instantly denied. “You’re lying!”

“Am I?” Tecteun asked in response. “I’ve done many things to you, yes… But I’ve not lied.” Tecteun turned to the monitor on the TARDIS console. “Surely you recognize the signs. Someone pretending to be that young can only be very, very old… Likewise, someone that old, can only be so welcoming of death.”

“What!?” Susan demanded, shoving Tecteun and the Magister out of the way, allowing Susan to get a view of the monitor.

The Doctor was facing off against the Timeless One, and he looked hopelessly outmatched.

“I have to help him!” Susan instantly resolved, charging back out of the breached doors.

“Susan, wait!” River called.

“Keep an eye on them, I have to help grandfather!”

And as she huffed and puffed, running down the corridors, she hoped she wasn’t too late.


	14. The End

_“The hour of our victory is at hand!”_ The Timeless One proclaimed, as the Doctor dove to avoid another strike. _“Nothing can stop it!”_

“Never say nothing!” The Doctor retorted, as he picked up a steel panel to shield himself. Things were already starting to look worse. The effort he had to exert to keep his leg working temporarily, to hold up the panel, and to dodge the other attacks, were all straining him close to his breaking point.

A strike from the Timeless One sent the steel panel careening through the air out of the Doctor’s hands, with Ace nearly being hit by the flying chunk of metal.

 _“You put up an admirable fight, Time Lord. One of the longest to last against our might.”_ She recognized. _“But I am afraid even that must come to an end. Goodbye…”_ The Timeless One raised her tendrils, poised to strike.

“Stop!” Susan commanded over the roar of the Breach, as she ran into the room.

“Susan, get out of here! Run!” The Doctor warned.

 _“Ah, my child.”_ The Timeless One turned around. _“So, you have decided to re-join us. Just in time. Observe, as the rest of our Kin arrive.”_

“No.” Susan stepped forward. “I’m begging you, stop this, please.”

The Timeless One tilted her ‘head.’ _“Why should I? This is what they deserve. It is just.”_

“They wronged me, us.” Susan began. “But…” She turned to look at the Doctor, standing on the stage, looking like he was about to collapse. “There are people here that I care about.”

 _“You naïve child, don’t you see what they’ve done?”_ The Timeless One asked in response. _“They subjected you to cruelties more suited to a lab animal, and now they would have you believe that they could be kind to you? This… Time Lord is not your grandfather; he is not even of the same universe as you! We are!”_

“I know.” Susan affirmed. “And that’s why… I came here to make you a deal.”

“Susan, what-?” The Doctor questioned.

“Quiet, please, Doctor.” Susan looked to him, almost pleadingly, before she turned back to the Timeless One. “You’re right… He isn’t my grandfather. He never has been. But… I can’t let innocents pay for the actions of a scant few. So, I’ll give you this; If you close the portal, leave Gallifrey and this universe alone… I’ll come back with you. And we can find another world to target.”

“Susan-!” The Doctor shot forward.

“There must be a reason you travel from universe to universe?” Susan suggested. “If you leave this one alone, I’ll help you with the next one.”

“Susan, what the hell are you doing!?” The Doctor demanded.

“Saving the universe.” Susan shot back. “Okay with someone stealing your thunder for once?”

Ace, despite the severity of the entire situation, chuckled. “Alright, I like the cut of her jib.”

“This isn’t a game!” The Doctor roared. “Susan, you are playing with the lives of countless trillions! Stop, for just one damn second, and think about this!”

“…I have thought about it.” Susan responded. “But you won’t change my mind.” She said, stepping closer to the Timeless One. “Will that work?”

 _“It is… agreeable.”_ The Timeless One granted. _“Come. We shall abscond from this place.”_ She resolved, floating up towards the portal.

Susan slowly stepped onto the stage, following the Timeless One. Coming to the edge of the tear, Susan could feel the light and heat coming off of the rift as though it was a hot summer day, and she turned to the Doctor.

“Thank you.” Susan stated. “For everything.”

She turned back around, and took a step, crossing the boundary.

“Susan!” The Doctor yelled, running towards the rift. Time seemed to move in slow-motion, as the Timeless One crossed the threshold following Susan, the rift itself beginning to shrink down. Every second was stretched out into a picosecond, as the Time Lord could slowly see space stitch itself back up, like a zipper being zipped up.

Even with his perception of time slowed so much, the Doctor was not going to be able to cross the threshold in time.

But, as it turned out, he didn’t have to.

A streak of bronze and red darted into the room, moving as fast as a bolt of lightning. The shape was humanoid, blurred at the edges from the sheer excess movement, and running so fast that, even with time as slowed down as it was, she still looked to be sprinting like an Olympic medalist.

The figure’s head turned, allowing the Doctor to see the woman’s face, and his breath caught as he recognized River.

River gave a sad sort of cocky smile, and she winked at the Doctor as she jumped into the ever-shrinking boundary.

The Doctor began to feel another anguished scream rising in his throat, before the Breach flashed as a body came flying out, time returning to normal as the tear in space-time finally snapped shut.

“What the bloody hell just happened!?” Ace demanded, her head darting about the place confusedly as the sound of a TARDIS taking off in the distance rung throughout the place.

The Doctor, for the most part, ignored her, as he darted over to the body on the floor. “Susan!” He cried, getting down on his knees next to her inert form. The Doctor began checking over her pulse, pressing an ear to her chest to hear her breathing, both worryingly turning up nothing.

And as he remained there, doting over his granddaughter worriedly, only one sentence, a single mantra, kept running through the Doctor’s mind.

_‘Please don’t die. Please don’t die. Please don’t die…’_

**_**DW**_ **

Susan’s eyes cracked open slowly, and she looked around in confusion. It took her a moment, but after a short second, the happy humming of the TARDIS began to tickle her bones, and Susan recognized her surroundings as belonging to the TARDIS’s medical bay.

A simple IV was hooked up to her, and the Doctor sat still in a nearby chair the TARDIS had provided. It was likely he didn’t strictly need to be there, but… She supposed his own worry trumped the TARDIS’s almost motherly pushing to get him to sleep in his own bed.

And as if responding to Susan’s own awakening, the Doctor too began to wake up.

“You’re okay.” The Doctor breathed in relief, as he stood up, slowly approaching. A giant smile overtook him, as he wrapped her up in a hug. “Don’t ever do something that stupid and ill-advised again!” He berated.

“I’m… I’m sorry.” Susan apologized, looking like she was damn near about to cry. “It was… I had to get her to stop, I had to. There was nothing else I can do.”

The Doctor rubbed her back comfortingly. “I know, I know… I’ve had to make decisions like that too often.”

“I tried to be strong.” Susan cried. “Like you.”

“Oh, Susan… The reason why I’m strong is so you don’t have to be.” The Doctor said. “I wouldn’t be a very good doctor if my patients had to be the ones to prescribe their own medicine.”

“…How did I get back?” Susan wondered, looking around. “I thought that would be it… I was ready to go.”

The Doctor looked down, melancholy. “River, she… She dove into the portal after you. I can only assume she threw you back through the other side.”

“She trapped herself on the other side so I could stay here?” Susan questioned in horror. “She’s stuck there forever…”

“I wouldn’t say that…” The Doctor gently replied. “She still has to write her book on Shepard, and she needs to meet us on Horizon that one time… She’ll be back.” He smiled, slightly fondly, with an equal tinge of sadness beneath it. “She always turns up when you least expect her. Besides, she has a suit of power armor and a Gluon Gun capable of shattering planets on the highest setting… I’d be more surprised if she w _asn’t_ giving them hell.”

Susan nodded slowly, looking blankly ahead. “So, is that really it then?”

“Well,” The Doctor adjusted his bow tie. “The Timeless Children all across Gallifrey saw a live feed of what happened. Those that didn’t call it quits are being taken care of. As for Tecteun and the Magister… They’re gone.”

“…She escaped.” Susan stated sadly, looking down.

“We’ll run into them again too, I’m sure.” The Doctor patted her on the shoulder. “But when we do… Don’t go charging off after them on some half-baked revenge scheme.”

“I know, it’s just…” Susan frustratedly clenched her fists. “All the pain she put me through, the torment… She had the gall to try and still call herself my parent.”

The Doctor glanced away, melancholy. “I know. And I’m sorry. For what it’s worth… I know I’m not your grandfather.”

Susan tilted her head. “What does that have to do with it?”

“I heard you loud and clear when you were talking to the Timeless One, don’t worry.” The Doctor swallowed. “Message received.”

“Oh, come now…” Susan slowly stated. “You didn’t honestly believe that, did you?”

The Doctor’s lack of response said all.

“…I was right, you know.” Susan said after a moment. “You weren’t my grandfather.”

“Well, there we have it.”

“No, don’t you see?” Susan rhetorically questioned. “You raised me, helped make me into the woman I am now. Everything I have, I owe to you. Because of that, I could say, from a certain perspective, you _aren’t_ my grandfather… You’re just my dad.”

The Doctor turned to Susan, tears welling up in his eyes. “You… Really mean that?”

“I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t.” Susan smiled warmly in response.

The Doctor beamed, wrapping Susan in another hug.

“Plus, it gives me an excuse to stop calling you grandfather.” Susan stated. “I don’t know why, but it feels… odd coming out of the new mouth.”

“Well, I won’t argue.” The Doctor smiled. “So, that’s it? We’re good?”

“We’re good.” Susan confirmed.

“Good, right!” The Doctor clapped his hands, bracing himself on his cane again. “These past couple of days have been a bit hectic… Ace still needs to be shown around the TARDIS, whaddya say we make that an off day, eh? Nice and relaxing.”

“God, that sounds amazing.” Susan agreed.

The Doctor grinned. “Right then, let’s go show the new cook around the kitchen, eh?”

“I’m right behind you.” Susan replied, as the Doctor took lead out into the corridor.

River was gone, trapped in an alternate universe. Tecteun and the Magister had escaped, free to reign terror down at any moment. And Gallifrey was left to rebuild from the devastating war without a president to lead them…

But for now, just for the moment… Everything was just fine.


	15. TARDIS Index File: The Timeless

_TARDIS Index File: The Timeless_

_Native to a universe nearing the end of its own lifecycle, the Timeless Ones are the last form of life known to exist in their home. They reproduce by consuming matter and energy, not one particular type, mind you, all types._

_Thermal and potential energy, the densest black hole to the smallest leaf on a lone planet, the Timeless Ones utilize everything to continue thriving._

_However, by the time of their supremacy, there was a problem. All stars, all planets, even the most supermassive black holes, have all fizzled away, leaving the Timeless Ones left alone in a realm of eternal, black void. The total end of the universe. Nothing, only the illusion of passing time which could no longer be marked or measured for certain. Hence the name: The Timeless._

_However, they would not go gently into the night willingly. No, instead, if they could not find anything else to feed on in their universe, they would find something on which to feed in others._

_That’s how their campaign across the multiverse started. First, it was one lone planet. And then two. And then one hundred. And then countless others. On each one, a fissure in space and time would open, and out of the fissure, would fall a lone child, deliberately engineered to blend in with the local life-forms._

_Then, the child would grow, assimilating into the local culture, until they grew to an age mature enough to open a portal for the rest to come through, and begin feeding. But, I hear you ask, why would they send a child to infiltrate if they knew the target had food? Why wouldn’t they all come through and feast then and there?_

_Well, I say to you in rebuttal, the Timeless can make these portals, yes, but once they are in any given universe, they’re completely reliant upon local transportation to get around. If the universe chosen in this scenario is, say, a feudal state, then once they came through and consumed a planet, it’d be slow going, and they’d likely all die off by the time they got through interstellar space. Thus, the if the universe chosen doesn’t have the technology to create a bridge back, the Timeless simply shift their focus to a new one._

_That, if nothing else, proves that the Timeless are not the gods they prop themselves up to be. In fact, the vast majority of the time, the children sent to infiltrate are… indisposed before they can reinstitute contact with the other side. Normally, this means that the Timeless Ones simply go forth to the next universe, leaving things well enough alone._

_But for some reason, on the alternate version of Gallifrey, the Timeless One in that instance showed an unusual interest in events. In Susan…_

_In the Doctor._

_Perhaps it was because of some outside factor…_

_But, after the destruction of the Timeless Children cult on Gallifrey, the Timeless suddenly and unexpectedly halted all attempts to feed on other universes. No one knows exactly the reason why, only that, whatever new portals the Timeless do create seem to be generated even more randomly, almost frantically. As though something caused them to start running scared._

_No one is for sure, but one could hazard a guess;_

_It’s all courtesy of one woman with a Gluon Gun._


End file.
